Introduced by David Ronniger in 1988, this creamy and yellow fleshed potato will surely win you over. It is one of our favorite potatoes, shapes ranges from round to oblong and they have a lightly netted golden skin that wraps around deep yellow flesh. Superb for everything – frying, baking, mashing, soups – you name it.

This mouth watering potato even won first place in Rodale’s Organic Gardening “Taste Off”.

La Ratte Fingerling:

Discovered in the Swiss Alps by French Farmer Jean Pierre Clot, the La Ratte fingerling has a rich and chest-nutty flavor and has long been favored by fine chefs. Wonderfully smooth and creamy when pureed yet maintains a firm texture when cooked.

This Sunday, January 4th, Blue Sky Organic Farms is opening its doors to you, our valued customer. From noon to 4 PM, we’ll be offering farm tours and serving fresh food from the Blue Sky kitchen. The farm store will be open, so come ready to shop!

We are proud of what we do at Blue Sky and the products we grow. We’re also honored that you have chosen to buy from us. In homage to you, we want to show you exactly where your food comes from. Feel free to ask questions and learn all about the organic produce process. We feel it’s important for you to connect to what you’re purchasing and putting in your body. Open Farm Day is our gift to you.

In case you haven’t been to visit us before, we’re located at 4762 N. 189th Avenue in Litchfield Park. (The best access is off Perryville Road. From Indian School, turn north on Perryville. You’ll see a large sign on your left about a 1/2 mile up the road. Turn on to the gravel road there, and follow it down until it ends in an open gate. You’ve reached the farm!)

Bring family and friends. Come and enjoy an exciting day of fun, food, and education. You might even get a chance to meet some of our friendly chickens, ducks, and goats! We provide fresh produce to you on a weekly basis. We want to give back and show you where that delicious produce comes from. It’s a new year. Let’s make it great by eating healthy and shopping close to home! Hope to see you on Sunday!

SHOP SMALL® IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD ON NOV 29

The story of America is written in every small business. It’s written in the cafes where we meet our first loves. And in the boutiques where we buy our babies’ clothes. On Nov 29, be there for the businesses that are there for you to help write the next chapter.

It’s cold in Phoenix! Okay, when we say “cold,” we mean it goes down to about 55 degrees at night. (We understand the rest of the world thinks we are big babies.) Still, even our version of cold can have an effect on both the crops and our many animals.

So what does it mean to the harvest when cold weather descends? First, let’s not forget: the colder season means shorter days, which means less sunshine, which means less photosynthesis. Less photosynthesis means the plants grow a bit slower. The plant metabolism slows down, the plants don’t take in as many nutrients, and the growth rate is slowed.

Don’t be worried! We are still growing healthy, thriving fresh produce! The produce is just taking its time to reach prime deliciousness. When it gets down to the 30 degrees or less, we do cover some crops to protect from frost.

Baby chicks keeping each other warm.

For our egg-laying chickens, there are similar side effects. No, chickens do not perform photosynthesis. However, they do lay fewer eggs in the cold season. Much of their energy is expended throughout the night in an effort to keep warm, so they have less energy for egg-laying. (Good thing we have lots and lots of egg-laying chickens and ducks, right?)

For Jake, the consequences can be much more dire. Since he’s growing meat chickens, on a weekly basis he deals with a new shipment of baby chicks. For the first week of their lives, their body temperature needs to remain in the mid to low nineties.

Additional heat (heat lamps and space heaters) are provided to keep them at the proper temperature. If they’re too cold, they can get stressed, which is as bad for baby chickens as it can be for over-worked humans.

Another negative possibility: in a desperate attempt to keep warm, the baby chicks pile up on each other, but sometimes when they pile up, chicks on the bottom can end up crushed to death.

Warmth is obviously very important to the farm on the whole. The crops need it, the chickens need it, and hey, even staff have taken to wearing jackets. We’re ready to welcome desert winter, even down to 50 degrees at night! What can we say? We have thin blood in Phoenix.

We have a confession to make. We made a mistake. We have an Open Farm Day the first Sunday of every month during our growing season. The first one is December 7th from 12 to 4 pm. On our website we had the first open farm day listed as tomorrow, November 2nd. This was a mistake and we apologize for getting you so excited to come out here and see everything just to tell you that you will need to wait one more month for the Farm Day event of the year. We are really excited about it and would love to have Open Farm Day every day of the year, but we have work to do around here. Organic farming in Arizona is a lot of work.

So, if you still can not contain your excitement, please feel free to visit us today or tomorrow at the farm to see our chickens and ducks, stop in our store, and leave with something tasty and colorful. Our store hours are posted on our Facebook page. There is a giveaway posted to our Facebook page as well that should interest you.

We also have some wonderful classes coming up that should spark your interest if you are interested in healthy, delicious organic food. There is a Juicing Class next Wednesday at 10 am featuring our CSA Director, Jeremy Medford. Jeremy is also a Health specialist that specializes in cancer healing and prevention via natural methods. After his wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given 12 months to live, he had hope there was a way to heal her cancer with the power of live organic foods. Long story short, Carrie is cancer-free and is doing very well raising their five kids. Juicing was and is an integral part of their wellness routine. Sign up for the juicing class to learn how juicing Blue Sky Organic produce can help you in your quest for health. Sign up here: http://www.realfoodcentral.com/product/juice-2-live-class-at-blue-sky-organic-farm/

Again, no Open Farm Day tomorrow, but you can still come see us and buy some produce in our farm store.

In the upcoming months, Blue Sky Organic Farm will be hosting a series of cooking classes, led by our own RJ Johnson.

RJ has been cooking all his life. We’re very lucky to have his expertise. It all started with his grandmother, who first brought him into the kitchen.

Then, he said, “My mom became a single mom. She worked a lot, and I did a bunch of the cooking. After that, my first jobs were as a waiter and I became interested in the kitchen as I progressed in my restaurant management career.”

He discovered that in order to be a chef, though, he needed further education, so he attended culinary school to hone his craft.

Some of his favorite things to cook? Surprisingly, eggs. He likes showing people that eggs don’t have to be just for breakfast. In fact, he’s a big proponent of eggs for dinner.

One of the goals of his cooking classes are “One Dish Meals.” RJ said, “People are busy, and that’s often their excuse for not eating well.” Following a class with RJ, that excuse won’t stand, because he’ll show you how to prepare a good meal in limited time with no muss or fuss.

Other classes will include baby food (less expensive ways to feed babies with less chemicals, sugars, and GMOs), cooking with greens (what do you do with kale, chard, and collards anyway?), and RJ’s passion, EGGS!

For RJ, food is an integral part of life. He said, “I love what food does to people. It slows us down, reminds us of family and good times, and causes us to become convivial.”

He’s right. Who doesn’t love a good home-cooked meal? Keep an eye on the Blue Sky Facebook and Twitter for official announcement of class dates, times, and topics.

Blue Sky Organic Farms and West Valley Naturopathic Center are proud to announce Michele Ackerman. Mrs. Ackerman was sought after for her expertise in clinical nutrition. Nutrition, as we all know, plays a fundamental role in every aspect of our health. Without proper and adequate nutrition our body cannot sustain optimal health, it affects our mental, physical and emotional well being.

2 years ago Michelle was given the opportunity to view food and her life in an entirely different light, she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. This life changing news set Michelle on a very personal journey to learn more about her ailment and more importantly how she could minimize and/or reverse the affects of MS. “I wanted to remain active in my children’s lives, so I needed to find a way to stop the progression of my disease.”

The traditional treatments outlined by the allopathic community did not appeal to Michelle, so she was motivated to educate herself and seek alternative MS treatment options. Working closely with her Naturopathic Physician of 10 years, they developed a new plan…a dietary plan that closely follows the Whal’s Foundation Protocol alongside alternative treatments for her autoimmune condition. “This treatment plan has afforded me a new lease on life, I feel strong, energetic and have been able to reverse the affects of my MS.”

Michelle is compelled to help others to understand the power of food and to help people with their relationship with food.

Michelle and Dr. Brian Archambault will be offering the first in a series of cooking classes. The evening will include different ways of preparing select vegetables, a tasting, recipes, nutritional information and fresh produce to take home. Please join us on November 19th at 6:30, at the kitchen of Blue Sky Farms, this will be a limited space class with a fee of $20. Please call now to reserve your seat. 623.643.9598